1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information sharing apparatus that realizes information sharing by intercommunicating information among multiple information management devices and in particular relates to an information sharing apparatus that manages relationships among the multiple information management devices as pipe information based on the intercommunication among the devices.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventionally, a client-server type system using a database has been used as means for sharing information with members in a group or an organization. The system retains information in a database server in accordance with a predetermined database schema. A query to the database or storage of information is made by utilizing a database access language such as Structured Query Language (SQL) from a client application. Thus information sharing is achieved.
However, the system has a weakness of impossibility of dealing with information unconformable to the predetermined schema. Moreover, since the number or locations of the databases constituting the system are fixed, it is difficult to add a new database to the system. Therefore, it is very hard for the system to cope with situations where kinds of information to be dealt with are increased or changed.
Systems have been proposed as a first solution to the above problems. These systems realize flexible information sharing in the situations where the kinds of information to be dealt with are increased or changed by disposing means for matchmaking between an information management device of an information provider and that of an information consumer.
In these systems, a single information management device can be the information provider or information consumer depending on situations or kinds of information to be dealt with. It can also cope with a newly added information management device.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-63696 (1993) discloses an intermediary communication method. In the method, a common center dealing with piece of information common to several kinds of intermediaries and a personal intermediary center are disposed. In the personal intermediary center, requested information and provider""s information are examined. If conditions presented from both sides are consistent with each other, the common center provides means for realizing an intercommunication between a person who has requested the information and a person who can provide the information. Thereby matchmaking between the information requesting person and the information provider is conducted.
xe2x80x9cIntegrating Information via Matchmakingxe2x80x9d D. Kuokka and L. Harada, Journal of Intelligent Information systems, 0, pp. 101-121 (1996) discusses an intermediary agent that intermediates between information providers and information consumers for directly connecting them and realizing flexible information sharing. The information providers send advertising messages to the intermediary agent to register their capabilities. The information consumers send requesting messages to the agent to know where necessary information exists. These messages are prescribed by a format referred to as Knowledge Query Manipulation Language (KQML). A software module capable of interpreting and generating KQML can send the messages to the intermediary agent for sharing the information.
xe2x80x9cKasbah: An Agent Marketplace for Buying and Selling Goodsxe2x80x9d, A. Chavez and P. Maes, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology, April 1996 discloses an idea that agents of goods seller and buyer examine goods and negotiate about prices in Kasbah Marketplace, a common place, to get a good deal. In the price negotiation, each agent has price change strategy. It is assumed that real goods are dealt with in Kasbah, but the idea can be applied for information sharing by considering the information as a kind of goods.
As a second solution to the above problems, systems that form clusters each comprising information management devices having similar information taking contents of information managed by the information management devices into consideration have been proposed.
People who are interested in a similar theme or topic can realize information sharing by utilizing these systems. In this case, a single information management device can be the information provider or information consumer depending on situations or kinds of information to be dealt with.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-255178 (1996) proposes a method of increasing efficiency in information retrieval. In this method, a network topology that takes relationships between the contents of information resources into account is structured for forming clusters of information resources retaining information of the same kind. When a new information resource is added to the network, the content of the new information resource and that of an information resource having a possible relationship are compared. If the contents are similar, a link is given therebetween to maintain the network topology. In retrieving information, all information resources belonging to an objective cluster can be traced through links that match a retrieval request.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-263404 (1996) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,648) discloses a method for scanning contents of electronic mails retained in a system and assembling specialists in a required field. For searching the specialists, a mail including a list of keywords indicating the specialized field is sent to a small number of recipients. Each recipient determines himself/herself to be the specialist or not by comparing the content of the mail and various kinds of files held by himself/herself. If the recipient determines himself/herself to be the specialist, he/she responds to the mail. The recipient further examines contents of stored mails and extracts a person who seems to be the specialist. The mail is then forwarded to the extracted person. Transmission of a mail to only a small number of recipients results in acquisition of a large number of specialists by repeating the mail forwarding step.
In xe2x80x9cA Multi-Agent Referral System for Matchmakingxe2x80x9d, L. Foner, The First International Conference on the Practical Applications of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology, 1996, a method of disposing means for extracting attribute of information and means for comparing attribute that compares contents of two pieces of information by utilizing attributes extracted by the means for extracting attribute for each piece of information managed by a module unit for forming clusters each comprising multiple information modules having similar contents. A hill-climbing search is applied for forming clusters, where each information module moves toward an information module having the similar information to that retained by itself. The application of the method enables to include the provider and consumer of the same kind of information in the same cluster to share the necessary information. In another application example, an interest of each member belonging to an organization is described in a document and groups based on the interests are formed by clustering the documents. Thereby information sharing is realized with members having the same interest.
The conventional systems described as the first solution require the information providers to release all pieces of information having possibilities of being accessed for properly complying the needs of the information consumers. Therefore, problems arises in that it is required to release the information to the undesirable person and that incomplete information matchmaking is conducted because not all necessary pieces of information can be released.
The conventional systems of the second solution have to examine the information retained by the information management devices in detail for forming clusters. Therefore, problems also arises in that there is a possibility of forming the clusters based on information that is not desired to be released and that a heavy processing load occurs in forming the clusters and accordingly a processing result cannot be gained rapidly.
The problem of undesirably releasing information is common to the systems of the first and second solutions. It further brings about a situation to allow a stranger to evilly use another""s personal information through the Internet.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has as an object of realization of sharing of global information based on partial information released to another person.
To achieve the object and in accordance with a purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an information sharing apparatus of the present invention realizes information sharing by composing a global relationship based on local relationships among information management devices.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.